Sunday, September 11, 2022

One Weekend Working at the Store

Notable things I'll remember about escaping the office to help out at one of the company stores for two days:

1) The elderly man who told me he wanted a checkout aisle with a middle aged cashier. When I gave him a choice of immediate service with a 20-something cashier or to wait for a middle aged cashier, sure enough, he chose to wait.

2) Overhearing a man on his Bluetooth say, "I'm at the front of the store. Where are you?" I looked around and noticed a woman about his age talking on a cell phone some distance away. 
"Is that her?" I asked the man.
It was.

3) Item #2 happened a second time with a different couple.

4) The little old lady who looked a little lost and told me she was just trying to figure out where she was. I wasn't sure if she meant where in the store or where in the world. Not knowing how to respond, I asked if I could help her find something, and she said she was looking for her sister. I walked the entire store without finding anyone matching the description she gave me; I even asked a couple of random women if they were shopping with their sister, but no dice. By the time I returned to the little old lady, she was speaking with an acquaintance who eventually located the sister.
I learned later from the acquaintance that the little old lady was a Silver Alert risk. I am very glad the acquaintance happened to be in the store at that time and had fully understood the stakes. I certainly hadn't. 

5) Throughout the weekend, I kept seeing one of my college professors walking around the store wearing a company logo polo shirt. Wasn't my college prof, of course,  he was a coworker I hadn'tmet yet. I asked this coworker if he had any relatives who worked at my alma mater; he said no. I explained why I asked then Googled an image of the professor. He agreed the resemblance was freakishly similar, then he made me show the picture to several other people who also thought the two of them could have been twins.
I called this coworker "Doctor" for the rest of the weekend.

6) Running the length of the store three different times to fetch batteries for customers who had expected to find some hanging by the cash registers where they could grab them on the way out.

7) The owner and superstar of the company showed up. At one point in the day, I saw her surrounded by half a dozen cashiers waiting for her to autograph the brims of their uniform ball caps.

8) Watching a 30-something customer frantically patting his shirt and pants pockets.
I asked, "Did you lose something or did you forget something?"
"I think I dropped my debit card!"
He described it as having an American flag image on it and sadly told me he had been all over the store; retracing his steps would be impossible. We split up to search for it hardly expecting to find it. But in the Pet section I spotted a plastic card face down. As I reached for it, I prayed for it to have an American flag on it. Pleasepleaseplease. And it did. The look on his face when I presented it to him was priceless; he was certain it had been lost forever.
This was my big win of the week. I will glow about this for days.

No comments: